Knocking a hole in a stud wall

Badger_Lady

I want to knock a hole between my master bedroom and the little box room next door that will be my dressing room.

It's a very thin wall, not load-bearing, with no electric wires running through it.

I know you'll think I'm weird, but I don't actually want to put a doorway in - just a little hole that you can crawl through, like an oversized mousehole. I'll keep the main door off the hallway.

So what do I need to do!? Just cut it out with a jigsaw or something? :rotfl:

Belnahua

That's a good idea, get dressed and then crawl through a tiny hole?

There will be a gap in the carpet between the two rooms. There might also be battening between the 2 walls, and quite probably along the floor.

You might also want to consider any fire hazards you'd be creating by having 2 rooms connected without a door?

Badger_Lady

Belnahua wrote: »

That's a good idea, get dressed and then crawl through a tiny hole?

Ah, no - it's crawl through a tiny hole, get dressed, then leave via the proper door!

Presumably it's quite simple to sort out the floor covering... is there a significant worry in terms of fire regulation? How would you go about creating a clean hole?

Take the pee out of me if you like, but tell me what to do while you're there!

Belnahua

You should see some of the things I've done!

But I think you'd need to give consideration to framing the hole, as plaster board is very rough when cut, unless you're very good with it (and I'm not - mr hammer), and will have ragged edges and break off if you catch it. Then the skirting board is either going to look odd cut if you don't frame it, or even odder if you leave it in place.

I wouldn't worry too much about the fire regulations, it might be worth double checking with a builder, but I'd be a bit more concerned about the value of the property, if it looks a bodge, new buyers will wonder what else is bodged!

Snow_Dog

You can cut through plasterboard with a stanley knife, I find the easiest is a hacksaw blade in a handle (not quite sure what its called but if you go to B&Q its just a small handle that you slide the hacksaw blade into which is then only held at one end, should only cost a couple of quid, of if you want to be really cost sensitive then wrap masking tape round the blade instead).

The blade will then give you a very clean cut in the plasterboard, it will also allow you to cut to the edge of the studwork inside the wall.

Then simply frame the hole as you would round a door. ie planed pine, the depth of the wall inside the hole and small skirting round the outside to hide the cut. Job done, no reason for it to look untidy.

You might need to put a couple of extra pieces of studwork in to support the edges of your hole before framing.

Incidentally, why would you want to crawl into you dressing room?

Plasticman

Badger_Lady wrote: »

I know you'll think I'm weird, but I don't actually want to put a doorway in - just a little hole that you can crawl through, like an oversized mousehole. I'll keep the main door off the hallway.

LOL :rotfl:

Why don't you just fit a very large cat flap

The poster above seems to have covered it, but I agree that you need to finish it properly. Personally I would put a doorway in (even if you don't want to fit a door to it). If you ever come to sell your house, you may find that the new occupants would prefer a doorway to a catflap.

Doozergirl

I'm sorry but I really need to know why you want to crawl through a hole instead of walking through a door!

Badger_Lady

He-he! Well, for myself there are two reasons:

1) A little secret doorway that no-one knows about! I'll probably just be boring and have a bedside table there, but you could be much more creative and put a doll's house or even a backless wardrobe there (that's what I'll have on the other side).

2) Space - the electrics are set up to have the bed against that wall, which doesn't leave enough room for a full-sized doorway.

And for resale - I guess the idea is to fill the hole back in again, so that the boxroom can still be described as a separate bedroom rather than just a dressing room...

Thank you very much for the tips - I'll have a go and let you know what happens!